what a privilege and blessing to be
addressing at the most prestigious
platform and the most August audience as
well now managing trustee of Superga
foundation yes I broke all barriers of
gender age parenting infrastructure and
disability but before I broke all these
barriers had broken down from inside one
day due to viral fever I was neck down
paralyzed suddenly and I was diagnosed
with a very severe type of neurological
disorder called multiple sclerosis and
this disease makes a person affected
completely disabled from walking to
vision to speech everything gets
we become absolutely helpless hopeless
whatever you may call and in this
disease the myelin on the nerve actually
wears off so the brain fails to send
signals to the particular organ and we
are not able to perform the detection so
this was my condition and my first child
was born before the disease and the
second child was born after the decease
and disability so I broke all the myths
about disability that even visible women
can have children can become mothers and
continual hospital stays provided me but
the luxury of a lot of time so I utilize
this time to learn a lot of languages I
can speak more than 10 languages and I’m
learning to write the seventh one which
is Malayalam and I also learnt very
important languages that of pain that of
suffering that of silence and I started
getting along with patients and their
family members
and I reconnected with the humans again
and humanity there was a time when
people told me I can never become a good
mother but now my children call me the
best mother in the world my children are
my children are good at studies
extracurricular activities and sports as
well my son is a state levels from a
state level cyclists grade level karate
champion district level shuttle
badminton player and daughter is a
singer in the making right now people
said I can never be a good life after I
became disability reading was one of the
most popular magazines in India honored
us with the most inspiring couple of the
I was told I can’t be useful again but
how good I’ve got more than 20 awards
for the work I’ve been doing as a social
I’m never trained in singing but I never
thought I’ll be giving stage appearances
but I’ve got an opportunity to sing at
various platforms and I’ve performed at
the audio Lord
launch of the tamil movie called pokkiri
raja and to an audience of about 15,000
people and in front of the cast and crew
last year I was one of the finalists at
won the title mrs. confidence this year
I am the first runner-up at the mrs.
India’s beauty pagent South which was
held at Goa and I also own the title
mrs. popular when I came back everybody
smiled asking was it a beauty pageant
for people on wheelchair all disabled I
said no it was meant for normal people
anybody so a lot of participants also
raised this all raised their objection
that we shouldn’t allow her to
participate I only asked them so if you
want to judge me based on how I walk you
must actually keep a marathon we check
out who who walks faster who walks
longer
when then you must be giving the title
to them right not to the person who I’m
in any any participant so I broke all
the barriers all the myths about beauty
so I was only one now from the
wheelchair person with disability I was
the only one who had not even shaved her
eyebrows not even done one facial in her
life so I had broken every other myth
about disability and each I am right now
39 years old and there’s no stopping to
learn anything so I am learning ukulele
and I’m learning keyboard with my
children I’m learning rifle shooting
they say I mean there are a lot of myths
about disability that we cannot donate
blood so on this world blood on it blood
donors day I and my husband set new
goals for couples we donated blood
together so su Chitra is a transgender
and I had appointed her as my assistant
so there was a lot of criticism from my
friends and neighbors to be careful not
to hire her but when I started working
with her I realized she’s just like us
she’s a human being as well she worked
for a brief while but then she she
wanted I mean she quit for better
prospects and now she’s working in a
Zarate and while I was in 10th standard
I could speak only two sentences in
English like I’m my name is fern Ella
parents I study in this course over and
I was feeling very inferior because I
was not good at any language and I made
up my mind then I started improvising on
my language and today I have written a
lot of short stories I write for online
forums and few of my stories have been
featured in books also and
upon the first price in a story writing
my name was when I was young I used to
feel that I should also become an
actress someday so there’s a short movie
made on my life called life mind survey
which was done almost four years back
and have been featured in various videos
the most important one being the
election commission of Tamilnadu that
was used as and that was used for the
election campaign and all this wouldn’t
have been possible without this man I
could break all the barriers I could
break all the myths only because of his
support so I owe my life to him without
him I probably wouldn’t have been alive
today and with all the love we had for
each other we wanted to do something for
the society something for the people
like us because my father-in-law also
was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer’s the same year that I was
diagnosed in 2009 so being nine years on
the wheelchair not just me my
father-in-law too was on wheelchair so
both of us it was financially mentally
emotionally draining for everybody at
home my children have seen only pain
only suffering in the house you know so
with all the experience that we had we
wanted to do something for the community
so we started spark a foundation
to support those affected with
neuromuscular disorders we started
counseling a lot of patients they
started reimbursing their hospital bills
medical expenses providing them with
wheelchairs walkers whatever the patient
sees and we started giving motivational
talks across India we have done more
than 50 talks in last four years and
very interesting and creative projects
like the calendar which is called the am
special series where we featured
differently-abled achievers from across
india who have been projected as
achieved projected as modernist and from
my own problems or my own problems we
found solutions like if I have to travel
somewhere we don’t have a transportation
facility which can cater to our needs I
can travel in train I can’t travel in
bus long distance I can travel in the
car not just me any person with
disability or you know you if you have
elderly parents at home this is the
standard problem everybody faces so we
came up with Sarathy thumbelina whose
first transport facility for disabled
and senior citizens which comes with a
ram so far combat toilet facility wash
basin television so that people like us
and last year I went to invite Police
Commissioner for one of our functions
and I was made to stand outside because
there were six steps to the office and I
requested the police constables to lift
me lift my wheelchair
everybody refused so I was made to wait
outside in the Sun till the police
commissioner came then they sent what
I’m going through today nobody else
should go so we built the ramp we built
the toilet and the Commissioner’s Office
we are not we made them allocate a space
for parking for disability so now I can
I mean you can see the pump Commissioner
himself is pushing me on the run there
so so what a pride thing what a feeling
of pride right so when somebody has
thrown out of their office and the same
person comes to push me that is I think
a nice way of taking revenge what
happens to cease what happens to these
children with disabilities who never go
to schools because schools have not
accessible
after a while children grow up and they
can’t be carried to the toilet anymore
so children drop out so we came up with
converting government schools into
accessibly ones by providing them a
wheelchair friendly toilet under arms to
the classrooms so we have made seven
government schools increment or disabled
friendly and this year twelve children
with disabilities have come back to
school and to teachers on wheelchair
have also been affected because of this
project and these schools are also
centers for public examinations so it
helps a large population of people and
all the projects that I’m talking about
are all first in its way in whole of
India actually we have constructed
differently abled toilets on all
platforms of the two railway station
I’m also member of dr UCC this is a
citizen consultative committee for the
railways Salem division so I’m also one
of the members where we can influence
the decision-making of the Southern
Railways Salem division
we’ve done a lot of awareness videos for
various kinds of disabilities and
disorders so this is my strength my
husband and family they’ve been there
they’ve been there for me when I’m down
when I’m when I’m depressed when I’ve
given up on life when I’m crying and I’m
feeling hopeless when I’m feeling
helpless they’ve always been there so
this is my teammates worker I would
especially mention Dinesh on and Suraj
and Delpy along with my husband guru
person who have been my backbone without
them I wouldn’t have done anything
without them I wouldn’t have broken all
the barriers and my sister younger
sister shylaja and Sandhya
have always been there for me as a moral
support so was it all easy was it always
as easy as just changing this lights in
my life
Falls failures fevers nothing stopped me
from achieving what I wanted I keep
falling in the bathrooms I keep falling
in the bedroom it’s it’s become a normal
routine in my house but only I think I
have to be really careful not to break
my head anywhere not to break my legs so
that’s going to be really difficult so
nothing stops me like I really know my
ability or anybody’s ability should be
to accept things be there to accept your
mistakes and whenever you think you have
done something wrong
I think everybody should life he lived
their life to the fullest because I
realized later so on certain morning I
was fine by evening of SmackDown
paralyzed and I became completely
dependent on everybody even to ask for a
glass of water to wear my own clothes
where people thought that I wouldn’t
make it again in my life but I
discovered there are two mantras in life
one is the power of meditation and one
is the power of gratitude be grateful
for every small thing you have now
people genuinely respect people
generally appreciate them generally
whatever you give it comes back to you
if you give hatred it comes back to you
if you give love that comes back so
I end with the north that everybody is
unique everybody is special everybody has the ability to break the barriers
addressing at the most prestigious
platform and the most August audience as
well now managing trustee of Superga
foundation yes I broke all barriers of
gender age parenting infrastructure and
disability but before I broke all these
barriers had broken down from inside one
day due to viral fever I was neck down
paralyzed suddenly and I was diagnosed
with a very severe type of neurological
disorder called multiple sclerosis and
this disease makes a person affected
completely disabled from walking to
vision to speech everything gets
we become absolutely helpless hopeless
whatever you may call and in this
disease the myelin on the nerve actually
wears off so the brain fails to send
signals to the particular organ and we
are not able to perform the detection so
this was my condition and my first child
was born before the disease and the
second child was born after the decease
and disability so I broke all the myths
about disability that even visible women
can have children can become mothers and
continual hospital stays provided me but
the luxury of a lot of time so I utilize
this time to learn a lot of languages I
can speak more than 10 languages and I’m
learning to write the seventh one which
is Malayalam and I also learnt very
important languages that of pain that of
suffering that of silence and I started
getting along with patients and their
family members
and I reconnected with the humans again
and humanity there was a time when
people told me I can never become a good
mother but now my children call me the
best mother in the world my children are
my children are good at studies
extracurricular activities and sports as
well my son is a state levels from a
state level cyclists grade level karate
champion district level shuttle
badminton player and daughter is a
singer in the making right now people
said I can never be a good life after I
became disability reading was one of the
most popular magazines in India honored
us with the most inspiring couple of the
I was told I can’t be useful again but
how good I’ve got more than 20 awards
for the work I’ve been doing as a social
I’m never trained in singing but I never
thought I’ll be giving stage appearances
but I’ve got an opportunity to sing at
various platforms and I’ve performed at
the audio Lord
launch of the tamil movie called pokkiri
raja and to an audience of about 15,000
people and in front of the cast and crew
last year I was one of the finalists at
won the title mrs. confidence this year
I am the first runner-up at the mrs.
India’s beauty pagent South which was
held at Goa and I also own the title
mrs. popular when I came back everybody
smiled asking was it a beauty pageant
for people on wheelchair all disabled I
said no it was meant for normal people
anybody so a lot of participants also
raised this all raised their objection
that we shouldn’t allow her to
participate I only asked them so if you
want to judge me based on how I walk you
must actually keep a marathon we check
out who who walks faster who walks
longer
when then you must be giving the title
to them right not to the person who I’m
in any any participant so I broke all
the barriers all the myths about beauty
so I was only one now from the
wheelchair person with disability I was
the only one who had not even shaved her
eyebrows not even done one facial in her
life so I had broken every other myth
about disability and each I am right now
39 years old and there’s no stopping to
learn anything so I am learning ukulele
and I’m learning keyboard with my
children I’m learning rifle shooting
they say I mean there are a lot of myths
about disability that we cannot donate
blood so on this world blood on it blood
donors day I and my husband set new
goals for couples we donated blood
together so su Chitra is a transgender
and I had appointed her as my assistant
so there was a lot of criticism from my
friends and neighbors to be careful not
to hire her but when I started working
with her I realized she’s just like us
she’s a human being as well she worked
for a brief while but then she she
wanted I mean she quit for better
prospects and now she’s working in a
Zarate and while I was in 10th standard
I could speak only two sentences in
English like I’m my name is fern Ella
parents I study in this course over and
I was feeling very inferior because I
was not good at any language and I made
up my mind then I started improvising on
my language and today I have written a
lot of short stories I write for online
forums and few of my stories have been
featured in books also and
upon the first price in a story writing
my name was when I was young I used to
feel that I should also become an
actress someday so there’s a short movie
made on my life called life mind survey
which was done almost four years back
and have been featured in various videos
the most important one being the
election commission of Tamilnadu that
was used as and that was used for the
election campaign and all this wouldn’t
have been possible without this man I
could break all the barriers I could
break all the myths only because of his
support so I owe my life to him without
him I probably wouldn’t have been alive
today and with all the love we had for
each other we wanted to do something for
the society something for the people
like us because my father-in-law also
was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and
Alzheimer’s the same year that I was
diagnosed in 2009 so being nine years on
the wheelchair not just me my
father-in-law too was on wheelchair so
both of us it was financially mentally
emotionally draining for everybody at
home my children have seen only pain
only suffering in the house you know so
with all the experience that we had we
wanted to do something for the community
so we started spark a foundation
to support those affected with
neuromuscular disorders we started
counseling a lot of patients they
started reimbursing their hospital bills
medical expenses providing them with
wheelchairs walkers whatever the patient
sees and we started giving motivational
talks across India we have done more
than 50 talks in last four years and
very interesting and creative projects
like the calendar which is called the am
special series where we featured
differently-abled achievers from across
india who have been projected as
achieved projected as modernist and from
my own problems or my own problems we
found solutions like if I have to travel
somewhere we don’t have a transportation
facility which can cater to our needs I
can travel in train I can’t travel in
bus long distance I can travel in the
car not just me any person with
disability or you know you if you have
elderly parents at home this is the
standard problem everybody faces so we
came up with Sarathy thumbelina whose
first transport facility for disabled
and senior citizens which comes with a
ram so far combat toilet facility wash
basin television so that people like us
and last year I went to invite Police
Commissioner for one of our functions
and I was made to stand outside because
there were six steps to the office and I
requested the police constables to lift
me lift my wheelchair
everybody refused so I was made to wait
outside in the Sun till the police
commissioner came then they sent what
I’m going through today nobody else
should go so we built the ramp we built
the toilet and the Commissioner’s Office
we are not we made them allocate a space
for parking for disability so now I can
I mean you can see the pump Commissioner
himself is pushing me on the run there
so so what a pride thing what a feeling
of pride right so when somebody has
thrown out of their office and the same
person comes to push me that is I think
a nice way of taking revenge what
happens to cease what happens to these
children with disabilities who never go
to schools because schools have not
accessible
after a while children grow up and they
can’t be carried to the toilet anymore
so children drop out so we came up with
converting government schools into
accessibly ones by providing them a
wheelchair friendly toilet under arms to
the classrooms so we have made seven
government schools increment or disabled
friendly and this year twelve children
with disabilities have come back to
school and to teachers on wheelchair
have also been affected because of this
project and these schools are also
centers for public examinations so it
helps a large population of people and
all the projects that I’m talking about
are all first in its way in whole of
India actually we have constructed
differently abled toilets on all
platforms of the two railway station
I’m also member of dr UCC this is a
citizen consultative committee for the
railways Salem division so I’m also one
of the members where we can influence
the decision-making of the Southern
Railways Salem division
we’ve done a lot of awareness videos for
various kinds of disabilities and
disorders so this is my strength my
husband and family they’ve been there
they’ve been there for me when I’m down
when I’m when I’m depressed when I’ve
given up on life when I’m crying and I’m
feeling hopeless when I’m feeling
helpless they’ve always been there so
this is my teammates worker I would
especially mention Dinesh on and Suraj
and Delpy along with my husband guru
person who have been my backbone without
them I wouldn’t have done anything
without them I wouldn’t have broken all
the barriers and my sister younger
sister shylaja and Sandhya
have always been there for me as a moral
support so was it all easy was it always
as easy as just changing this lights in
my life
Falls failures fevers nothing stopped me
from achieving what I wanted I keep
falling in the bathrooms I keep falling
in the bedroom it’s it’s become a normal
routine in my house but only I think I
have to be really careful not to break
my head anywhere not to break my legs so
that’s going to be really difficult so
nothing stops me like I really know my
ability or anybody’s ability should be
to accept things be there to accept your
mistakes and whenever you think you have
done something wrong
I think everybody should life he lived
their life to the fullest because I
realized later so on certain morning I
was fine by evening of SmackDown
paralyzed and I became completely
dependent on everybody even to ask for a
glass of water to wear my own clothes
where people thought that I wouldn’t
make it again in my life but I
discovered there are two mantras in life
one is the power of meditation and one
is the power of gratitude be grateful
for every small thing you have now
people genuinely respect people
generally appreciate them generally
whatever you give it comes back to you
if you give hatred it comes back to you
if you give love that comes back so
I end with the north that everybody is
unique everybody is special everybody has the ability to break the barriers
Please follow and like us: